Hamilton and Raikkonen fastest in Friday sessions

The seventh round of the 2017 Formula One World Championship began with two practice sessions on Friday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, as teams prepared for the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Two 90-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – were primarily spent building grip into the semi-street circuit. With the infrequent use of the roads on which the track is based, the asphalt proved to be very green and it made traction hard to come by.

Leading the way in FP1 was Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, whose fast lap of 1:13.809 was .198 of a second better than the next quickest driver, Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

As the track rubbered in, speeds picked up and lap times dropped in FP2. Atop FP2 was Kimi Räikkönen with a quick time of 1:12.935. His fast lap was .215 of a second better than runner-up Hamilton, but still .123 of a second off Hamilton’s pole-winning mark for last year’s Canadian Grand Prix and .660 of a second off the all-time fastest lap at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – a 1:12.275 set by Ralf Schumacher in his Williams during qualifying for the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix.